Molecular communication: Physically realistic models and achievable information rates

TL;DR

This paper models molecular communication as an information-theoretic problem, providing realistic models and bounds on mutual information to assess communication capacity at microscale and nanoscale levels.

Contribution

It introduces physically realistic models for molecular communication and derives bounds on mutual information, bridging biology-inspired communication with information theory.

Findings

Bounds on mutual information demonstrate feasible estimation of channel capacity.

Models balance realism and analytical tractability for communication theorists.

Results suggest potential for reliable molecular communication at small scales.

Abstract

Molecular communication is a biologically-inspired method of communication with attractive properties for microscale and nanoscale devices. In molecular communication, messages are transmitted by releasing a pattern of molecules at a transmitter, which propagate through a fluid medium towards a receiver. In this paper, molecular communication is formulated as a mathematical communication problem in an information-theoretic context. Physically realistic models are obtained, with sufficient abstraction to allow manipulation by communication and information theorists. Although mutual information in these channels is intractable, we give sequences of upper and lower bounds on the mutual information which trade off complexity and performance, and present results to illustrate the feasibility of these bounds in estimating the true mutual information.